does anyone else get any abuse on their commute?

andrewlwood

This morning a taxi pulled a u-turn right in front of me; I stuck the brakes on and held my tongue. As he started to drive off I rode on, and he then pulled in to the kerb right in front of me, forcing me to slam the brakes on AGAIN (so, twice in 30 ft, he pulls out without any signal). No indicator, nothing.
When I asked him if he could use his indicators next time, he told me to 'f@@k off, you fat c@nt'.

Lovely chap; competent, smart and witty with it.

ballypete

I do ten miles each way through Leicester every day and will occasionally get abuse from cars, on one occasion the guy altered course to force me into the next lane. However when I pull up next to them at the lights and get my police warrant card out they suddenly run out of things to say...bless.

Galfinnan

Not quite abuse but on the way home from work the other night cycled through an underpass. As soon as I got in I could hear the tyres crunching on a huge amount of glass, a little is normal for the area, but this was too much. Got off bike and carried it though to the other side to be greeted by a giggling band of urchins carrying glass bottles and one had a hammer.

Far be it from me to cast aspertions on Glaswegian youths but it did occur to me that they were deliberately smashing the bottles to either get them to dismount ( to steal their bike) or simply to puncture their tyres. Could just be their weapons of choice mind you as I had to cycle through a rival (to them) group of urchins a short time earlier on another section of the canal.

I did consider calling the police but it did occur to me that there has a problem in that area for years that the police have had little success with so I doubt they would bother. have been off for 2 days but if its the same tommorow I reckon I will try at least to get them to do something

optimisticbiker

ballypete wrote:

I do ten miles each way through Leicester every day and will occasionally get abuse from cars, on one occasion the guy altered course to force me into the next lane. However when I pull up next to them at the lights and get my police warrant card out they suddenly run out of things to say...bless.

Wish I'd had one of those today... couple of teen thugs in a corsa twice passed with a couple of inches to spare at pinch points, so I politely suggested they gve a bit more room next time, and got the reply " you f'ing w**nker, next time I'll try to kill you" - nice... was tempted to yank the keys out and make a run for it... but satisfied myself with giving the t*rd a sweet smile as I passed him a couple of miles down the road as he sat in traffic...

Jason82

Nope have never got any abuse yet. I have made w&nker signs at roundabouts to cars and buses that don't indicate though especially if they made me stop for no reason.

Flyingbogey

My mate did this once on the Staines road in Sunbury. Got a can of drink thrown at him from some yobs in a car. Caught them up and took their car keys and threw them in the river, asking, "What you gonna do now?" Nothing as it turns out. Wish i had the bottle to do this but i don't have the kahunas to back it up.

Jason82

Flyingbogey wrote:

My mate did this once on the Staines road in Sunbury. Got a can of drink thrown at him from some yobs in a car. Caught them up and took their car keys and threw them in the river, asking, "What you gonna do now?" Nothing as it turns out. Wish i had the bottle to do this but i don't have the kahunas to back it up.

Or possibly the stab vest, do it to a pikey and your likely to get battered by crowbar or worse, not worth it in my opinion. Hand gesters are good enough, although most people look at me puzzled because they clearly believe they have done no wrong by being in the wrong lane and not using indicators. So not sure they make much difference but they help get rid of my anger.

Flyingbogey

This was bloke was some sort of Commando in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) in the 70's. Bit of a strange one but looks like an ordinary bloke, I would never want to rattle his cage, but as you say. You never know!

shm_uk

Jeez, where do all you lot live?

Seems Sth Stockport / Nth Cheshire area is populated by 'normal' people as I've yet to be on the receiving end of any form of abuse on my commutes/rides.

Or maybe I'm just too Zen and don't allow any of it to register.

"Not responding makes the accuser look pathetic"

Jason82

Flyingbogey wrote:

This was bloke was some sort of Commando in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) in the 70's. Bit of a strange one but looks like an ordinary bloke, I would never want to rattle his cage, but as you say. You never know!

Walking round with no underwear doesn't make you hard ha ha. Fair enough I have a few firends like him one who is ex rusian army, he knows how to fight I have seen it. I am just a big wuss compared to them.

walkingbootweather

@ Galfinnan. The Police may not do much but it is worth reporting to your local authority. They will clean up and avoid damage to other bikes. They will also have contacts with Police and, if this is a repeated activity (and therefore costing them money to deal with) may be able to take action to reduce chances of re-occurance e.g. use of cctv, enforcement officers etc.

Galfinnan

Will see whats it like on the way home tonight. It's actually not that far from where i live, thinking about it last night I was tempted to ride up with a brush and just sweep it up. The idea of sweeping it into the canal for the next time the little urchins go for a paddle also occurred to me but working in a school I need to be careful. Getting caught doing something like that could cost me my job.

shouldbeinbed

As long as you don't get caught or post your location, job and prior thoughts on a public access bit of the world wide web

Ah

cje

Someone threw a can of Strongbow at me this evening, from a moving car. Missed by miles. Then a gang of lads at a bus-stop starting saying 'Come on Contador' as I rode past. The latter was funny, the former just a bit pathetic.

AndyManc

shm_uk wrote:

Jeez, where do all you lot live?

Seems Sth Stockport / Nth Cheshire area is populated by 'normal' people as I've yet to be on the receiving end of any form of abuse on my commutes/rides.

Or maybe I'm just too Zen and don't allow any of it to register.

"Not responding makes the accuser look pathetic"

You don't get out enough, I cycle in the Stockport/sth Manchester area most days, I get random shouts on 4-5 days a week.

I do cycle at dodgy hours though, 11pm - 6am.

And it's getting worse .


.

AndyManc

cje wrote:

Someone threw a can of Strongbow at me this evening, from a moving car. Missed by miles. Then a gang of lads at a bus-stop starting saying 'Come on Contador' as I rode past. The latter was funny, the former just a bit pathetic.

Yeah it was pathetic ............. unless you take drugs as well :roll:


.

Cladge

I also live/cycle in South Manchester and I've only had lip once, a few days ago, from the kid driver of a black mk4 Corsa that seems to live somewhere near Broom Lane. Pulled up to my back wheel whilst I was turning onto a main-ish road, leant out his window and, referring to me as "bike", yelled at me to "go" (and then repeated a few times with added swearing).

Amusing this: he couldn't see either way up the road from his position behind me, and taking the time to respond to him caused me to miss at least two opportunities to actually "go". In hindsight, I wouldn't even grace this stuff with a response. I have wondered whether it's worth cycling with headphones in (not actually connected to anything) to make the whole effort pointless to anyone else who wants to pass comment either from their window, or the middle of their steering wheel.

Galfinnan

Well, cycled home on Friday along the same route. Dismounted and walked through to the crunching sound of glass as expected. Came out the other side, no urchins, not much glass on the other side so looked like someone may have tried to clean it up a bit. Get back on the bike and cycle up onto the crest of the next hill and cycle through a puddle of glass on the other side. Punctured rear and 15 min walk home was the result so it could have been worse. As I turned to walk home another passing cyclist commented on the amount of glass and After passing through the tunnel again I warned a women not to take her dog through due to the glass.

The tunnel sits on a boundary so I'm going to do a bit of research and find out which council it belongs to and report it. Punture is bad enough but I hate to imagine if someone came off and landed on that.

Blacktemplar

Galfinnan wrote:

Not quite abuse but on the way home from work the other night cycled through an underpass.

Whereabouts were you? There are very few roads or cycle paths west of the SECC that don't have that lovely glassy twinkle about them...

A bloke I spoke to a while back told me the local yoof deliberately smash bottles on the exit ramps from the cycle paths "for fun" as they're narrower and it's harder to avoid.

I only have three words for you;

SCHWALBE MARATHON PLUS

'Nuff said

Blacktemplar

AndyManc wrote:

cje wrote:

Someone threw a can of Strongbow at me this evening, from a moving car. Missed by miles. Then a gang of lads at a bus-stop starting saying 'Come on Contador' as I rode past. The latter was funny, the former just a bit pathetic.

Yeah it was pathetic ............. unless you take drugs as well :roll:


.

Impressive that yoof in Manchester even know who Contador is.....

Long_Time_Lurker

Someone threw a golf ball at me from a moving car last night.
Didn't realise until I heard the 'clack, clack clack' as it bounced down the street.
Thing is:
1. It hit and damaged a parked car.
2. Their car had a personalised number plate, so it was easy to memorise. Bloody idiots.
I told the owner of the car (it was parked in a drive), and now the police are following it up.

Galfinnan

Will have a look at those tyres they look good and On One has a sale on just now so that sounds like a good idea to me.

Phoned the council and spoke to someone who sounded vaguely interested and said they would pass it on. On the way home last night the path was clear (for the time being) and as it was sunny cycled up to Lock 27 for a refreshing pint of soda and lime to celebrate. Actually quite a nice pub with the tables outside and the cycle path running right through it.

The underpass is located on the Forth and Clyde canal and passes under the road that leads up to the Sainsburys at Drumchapel (Duntreath Avenue).

Headhuunter

Had some abuse on Fri and today. On Fri an AA van tried to cut me up on the OKR. I was filtering in the right hand lane and he drifted across almost running me into a traffic island. Whan I shouted at him as I passed (traffic was moving more slowly that cycles), he shouted back, something about me having been in the wrong place.... Probably one of those tw@ts who thinks that cyclists should be in the gutter at all times.

This morning a Serco van, one of those high security black mariah things tried to left hook me. He accelerated up the outside and then suddenly signalled and pulled in to the left. Luckily I was turning left anyway, If I had been going straight on he would have collected me on the way round. I banged on the side of the van as I passed (again, traffic was travelling more slowly than me) and he honked at me and stuck his finger up as though I had done something wrong!

walkingbootweather

@ Galfinnan,

Glad to hear glass cleared up, at least for now. Council's sometimes get a bit of unfair flack - if they don't know about something then we can't really complain if they don't deal with it. If you have reported a problem and they still don't act then by all means complain. As I have said, if the problem re-occurs then report it again. If it is regular action may be taken to try to idenify culprits.

Finlab6

coming down a hill on Friday saw a pensioner step out not looking. There were no cars coming so I just went into the other lane and passed behind him, slowing to a junction about 5 metres further on.
Pensioner let rip shouting at me saying that because he had right of way over cyclists I should have stopped for him. Tried to point out that pedestrians dont have right of way but it fell on deaf ears (literally)

walkingbootweather

Perhaps not quite what happened but Highway code states "watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way " which may in a Pensioner's mind become "pedestrians have right of way"

Regardless of right or wrong, a good driver or cyclist will try to anticipate what others will do. It may be 'better' to slow down or stop rather than ride in another lane to avoid an obstacle.

Having said that I have been in a similar position and taken similar action (then regretted it after greater consideration).

Finlab6

Straight road so he didnt have right of way. Next time I'll slow (and probably get shouted at anyway)

BigShot

Cracking thread. I love how cyclists in most of the English speaking world (and probably the non-English parts where cycling isn't the majority mode) have all sorts of war stories.

I don't commute (work at home) but do ride a lot to get around and so get most of the nonsense others report.

My favourite was someone who turned towards me from a side road when he should have given way (I was in the middle of the lane and doing 30mph), tried to squeeze past me in a space that wasn't wide enough and (understandably) got a bit tetchy when I slapped the top corner of his windshield.
After a bit of shouty I told him to get back in his car and drive away. He weighed me up and decided to take the advice (I'm not a big or scary lad, but real confidence is a rare feature). He drove 10 yards up the road and pulled onto his drive.
Nobody is in THAT much of a hurry to get home that they should risk flattening a cyclist.
Tool.


One common thing I see in these discussions is people keeping quiet because they don't want a kicking. I'm rather free and easy with my middle finger when people drive like idiots, and I'm never shy about telling them exactly what they've done wrong when the opportunity arises.

The main thing I've learned, though, is that when challenged the majority pretend nothing happened. A smaller but still large number hurl abuse through closed windows. Fewer still wind down the window and hurl the abuse. A small number make threats. An absolutely TINY number get out of the car and make threats.
I've only ever had one driver (black cab) I thought was going to get violent (though to be fair - I DID boot his car door after he tried to run me off the road - so it's not like I wasn't asking for trouble) but thanks to a crowd of other cyclists backing me up he thought better of it.

In short - having a word will almost never get violent, and if they do the D-Lock held conveniently in the home-made holster attached to my belt will be just the job if I've got one of the rare people who can actually fight better than the average mug and don't get the message when I throw my bike at them... which I would.

SickAsAParrot

Hmm, I cycle through most of the a*se end of Stoke 14 mile round trip every day, I get abuse maybe once every 6 months. I must be doing it wrong.

lockstock666

I find its mostly me giving a small amount of abuse due to complete idiots both on in their cars and even more on foot.

I shouted at a guy in a car yesterday for overtaking another car on a roundabout so fast that he sped toward the toucan crossing that I was on and really slammed to a halt. I had my 2.5y old son on the back in a child seat so I shouted at the driver very loudly. He just acted sheepish and dismissive, luckily he was in a 5 series so his brakes were as good as his engine. He must of felt a bit silly tho.

As for pedestrians or even other cyclists, if someone makes genuine error then all it takes is a simple palm to say sorry or to utter the word sorry. Case closed, move on.

If someone is being an idiot or careless and then looks at me like I'm the idiot then i cant help but say something.

For the most part recently I've met several kids about 10-15 y-olds who have been a bit careless and I braked for but as I have got near them they have immediately said oh sorry mate. To which I reply no problem mate or something. How it should be.

Pedestrians who look at you and then walk out in front of you are very annoying. I have made sure a few of them knew that they were idiots while making a point of not slowing down and swerving around them.